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Hiking Stehekin |
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Hiking Day One
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Cleo leads the way along the
Lakeshore Trail. |
Hiking Day Two Late Monday morning, after a good night's rest to recover from the frenetic day prior, when we all had to rush to catch the boat, all were feeling fine, except Durango, who had wrenched his back carrying the heavy load of someone's excessive luggage. Despite his excruciating pain, Durango joined everyone on a hike on the Lakeshore Trail. The trail is very well built, with great views of Lake Chelan, a lake which resembles Utah's Lake Powell in its stunning clarity and deep blueness.
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We hiked the Lakeshore Trail for many miles. The trail begins at Stehekin Landing and traverses the edge of the lake, 17 miles to Prince Creek. Some Stehekin visitors are dropped off at Prince Creek and hike the Lakeshore Trail into Stehekin. At warmer times of the year rattlesnakes must be avoided if they happen to be sunning themselves. We saw no rattlesnakes. Not this day. The rattlesnake happened later. |
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| DURANGO ROADTRIPPING BLOGGED ABOUT STEHEKIIN | |||
| DURANGO BLOGS ABOUT WASHINGTON | |||
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Hiking Day Three Clarence had been pushing for a mega-hike. Keith and Prissy wanted nothing to do with that. Durango's back hurt. Wanda just wanted to relax. So Wally, Eddie, Clarence and Cleo took off, with Purple Pass as their destination. Durango and Wanda sat around enjoying our morning bakery assortment. And then the carbo-loading energized even our slothness. We decided to hike the Imus Creek Nature Trail after Prissy came back and gave us a glowing report. And after she told us that Keith had followed the main hikers up the Purple Pass Trail! Prissy guided Wanda and Durango towards the Imus Creek Trailhead. Part way there, we met Keith walking quite jauntily down the road. He had hiked several miles up the Purple Pass Trail, but finally it got too steep. Prissy went back to the Lodge with Keith, leaving Durango and Wanda on their own to hike the demanding Imus Creek Trail. |
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High above Lake Chelan on the Imus Creek Nature Trail Durango conducts a Nature Seminar for all who would listen... | ||
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 STEHEKIN
BEARS |
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 A group portrait at the Summit of Purple Pass |
Wanda and Durango were quite sure the Purple Pass hikers would not make it back to Stehekin in time to catch that night's bus to the Stehekin Valley Ranch. But it was known the hikers were strongly motivated to hike fast, because this was our last dinner, and the Courtney women were fixin' to make lasagna. | ||
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Do not attempt a hike, such as this, without first consulting your doctor. Or, better yet, take your doctor with you on the hike. Better yet, take two doctors. And make sure one of them has a syringe with Ephedrine in it, in case of an allergic reaction to a bee sting. |
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The hikers reached
Purple Pass Summit about 2:30. They had to be back at Stehekin Landing
by 5:15 to make the dinner bus. Wanda and Durango were certain they
would not make it. We decided we would go to the Stehekin Valley Ranch
for lasagna and not worry about the hikers. At ten minutes before 5,
Eddie showed up. He had been running, he said the others were, maybe, a
mile back. Eddie seemed a bit delirious. He told us to hold the bus. As
if we could. Or would. He also told us that Cleo had stepped on a
Rattlesnake. At one point on the steep climb down she thought she
stepped on a stick, then the stick moved, then she realized it was a
snake! It was not very big, and because of the cold temperatures
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| STEHEKIN LINKS | |||
| Washington Link List | |||
the snake moved slowly. It slithered off the trail,
turning to look at the startled hikers and to shake it's rattle.